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Abbot's 150th Anniversary

Top middle: Abbot Trustee Caroline Stevens Rogers talks with Eleanor Tucker.
Top right: Susan Lloyd with Miss Hearsey and Headmaster Sizer at the Anniversary Luncheon 
Below: Myndie Howard Nutting '40 gets a tie that binds from Carol Hardin Kimball '53.


Above: Donald Gordon with Mimi Kessler '73
Right: Betsy Parker Powell '56, Donald H. McLean, Jr. '28, Mary Byers Smith '04, P.K. Allen '29 and Donna Brace Ogilvie '30 at Abbot Academy Wing dedication.

Four Abbot Principals and one hundred fifty Abbot alumnae, teachers, trustees and friends celebrated the 150th Anniversary of Abbot Academy's first classes on May 4, 5, 6 and dedicated the new Abbot Academy Wing of the Athletic Complex.

The scale and warmth of the Abbot response was extraordinary. From every decade of this century and from great distances alumnae came -- at one end of the spectrum Mary Byers Smith '04 and Ruth Newcomb '10, who brought memoirs for the archives; at the other end, members of Abbot's last "singular" class, '73, and Lucy Gifford of '74. Abbot women came who have been active in Academy affairs since the merger and others who hadn't set foot on either campus since then.

The Anniversary held a quality of serendipity, of discoveries and unexpected currents that carried the occasion even beyond the expectations and purposeful plans of Myndie Howard Nutting '40 and her Anniversary Committee. The serendipity at the opening party Friday afternoon in Bertha Bailey House (formerly French House) was the reappearance of Eleanor Tucker, Abbot teacher and administrator for 33 years; "Tuck" became acting principal of Abbot and even dean of girls at Andover Summer Session's first co-ed summer. Principals Mary Crane and Don Gordon were at the party too, and Miss Marguerite Hearsey arrived next morning. After dinner -- three dinners because of the crowds -- alumnae heard a student Philomathean debate between Helen Link '79 and Rachel Stella '80, and John Talcott '80 and Dewey Thompson '79, and listened to Fidelio sing. Here, and everywhere at the Anniversary events, were spectacularly beautiful flowers, arranged by Dorothy Garry Warlick '40 and her committee, silent statements that a thing worth doing is worth doing extraordinarily well.

Special currents were at work Saturday morning in the Underwood Room where Liz Hammons Sullivan '52 had created a palpable Abbot environment, through research and by encircling the room with display boards of Abbot photographs. There were Abbot memorabilia -- Madame Sarah Abbot's stiff black gown on a dress form, a 19th century teacher's journal, the Revolutionary War skeleton from the biology room. And more photographs. The Abbot "surround" charged the Coffee Hour with familiarity and meaning and made it a major and memorable occasion, where the Principals, their teachers, and their students remingled. It was Abbot at Andover.

"Why a Liberal Education?" The seminar moderated by Hilary Paterson Cleveland '45 offered some answers; Nancy Richmond Hammer '48 offered specifics -- "learning to read with precision and speak with clarity." To student Beth Lovejoy '79, member of the Phillipian, Chorus and crew, a liberal arts education means learning to make choices: "I learned from people here that I could do more than I thought I could." To Hunt Stehli '79, who had majored in the Phillipian, as managing editor, and in WPAA-FM, his education outside the classroom was most important. Sandy Urie Thorpe '70 sees the value of liberal arts as a trained sensitivity to the world around us, the context in which we develop our point of view: "The people who will be leaders are those sensitive to the implications of change."

The 150th Anniversary Luncheon with the Phillips Academy Trustees filled an entire and elegantly appointed dining hall in Commons. With Myndie Howard Nutting as toastmistress and the Principals as guests of honor, the head table combined a sense of gala with one of seriousness, honoring the leadership and ideals of Abbot in the "singular school" and in the new combined Academy. "Even though more than 200 people were present, the sense of intimacy was preserved," a faculty member observed. "It seems to be a quality of Abbot." Another quality of Abbot, "heavenly goo," was served for dessert. Charter Trustee Carol Hardin Kimball '53 emphasized the importance and influence of the Abbot Academy Association, the independent internal research and development board that directs the income from $1 million of Abbot funds within the Academy. History Instructor Susan Lloyd related the perils and joys of writing the history of Abbot, A Singular School, to be published by September: "A book is only a distorted mirror of the truth .... A writer can only push as close as possible to the truth." Headmaster Sizer recalled Abbot's ideal, "to be useful, rather than merely ornamental," stressing conduct, belief, habit and character. He emphasized, "the belief in a Christian way and a need for men and women to live a life of service, a goal beyond themselves .... Let us reassert the courage of Abbot's founders, rooted in the Judaeo-Christian character."

Trustee Melville Chapin '36, a former Abbot Trustee and now chairman of the Bicentennial Campaign, announced the Donna Brace Ogilvie Teaching Foundation. Trustee Chapin also announced the anonymous gift of $100,000 to the Abbot Academy Association: $50,000 to honor Miss Marguerite Hearsey, for a discretionary fund, and $50,000 to honor Miss Alice Sweeney.

Betsy Parker Powell '56 led the ceremonies of dedication of the Abbot Academy Wing, in the Athletic Complex, aided by Trustee Philip K. Allen '29, Abbot's former Trustee President and Athletic Director Joseph Wennik '52. Mary Byers Smith '04 read messages from Mary Carpenter Dake and other Griffins and Gargoyles. Seniors Catherine Tice and Kendall Meyer choreographed modern dancing that celebrated the dedication and afterwards Coach Shirley Ritchie led tours of the new wing.

Donna Brace Ogilvie '30 gave alumnae a poignant reminder of how strong is the impression of a great, and loved, school: "I don't think there has been a day in my life when something didn't remind me of Abbot. A phrase of poetry, a part of the classics, a math problem, a Latin word or a French phrase, a work of art, an old friend or a hymn -- bring back those school days in a flash of memory."

On Sunday morning, serendipity still was operating. The Academy's Roman Catholic and Protestant congregations came to Abbot Hall and the Abbot Chapel for morning services, in Abbot's honor, and found what it was like to worship in the sunlight! The Trustees have voted to keep the Abbot campus for school use. So exactly 150 years after the opening of Abbot Academy on May 6, 1829, a young maple tree was planted at the edge of the Sacred Circle, blessed by the chaplains' prayers and an Abbot benediction by Ruth Newcomb '10: a fitting symbol of the re-merging of the Abbot and Andover campuses!

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